Compared to population size, Houston is missing on the TV landscape

LA and New York dominate the TV industry, Texas has had just a handful of shows set here.

REBA: Reba ran for five seasons starring Reba McEntire as a wise-cracking single mother, it was sold to 30 different countries becoming a huge hit in the Czech Republic. Reba has since gone back to the dark side starring in Malibu County, set in yes, you've guessed it Malibu, Ca.

KILLER WOMEN - "Killer Women" stars Tricia Helfer ("Battlestar Galactica") as Molly Parker, Mark Blucas ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") as Dan, Marta Milans ("Shame") as Becca, Alex Fernandez ("Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen") as Luis and Michael Trucco ("Battlestar Galactica") as Billy. It is the only scripted show to-date set in San Antonio according to Buzz Feed.

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ANIMAL COPS: HOUSTON is just one of the many reality shows that have made it to Houston. It follows the city's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

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HOUSTON MEDICAL is a 2002 documentary series where the lives of staffers and patients at Memorial-Hermann-Texas Medical Center were filmed over the course of a year.

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BIG MEDICINE was an hour long reality TV show airing on TLC. A father and son team revealed the truth of bariatric surgery at the Weight Management Center at Houston's Methodist Hospital.

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WALKER, TEXAS RANGER battled crime in Dallas but made it to H'town to film for episodes in 2012

DALLAS: Perhaps the most famous show ever set is Texas ran on CBS from 1978 to 1991, a continuation also called Dallas was premiered in 2012 on TNT, the second series received critical acclaim.

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The film "Houston," by German filmmaker Bastian Gunther,was set and shot here in town and was featured in the most recent Sundance Film Festival. Read our interview with Gunther at houstonchronicle.com.

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A scene in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” was shot at Johnson Space Center.

The 1994 film "Reality Bites" was set in Houston and filmed at several Houston locations, including The Heights and Tranquility Park on Rusk Street.

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"The Tree of Life," released in 2011, is set in Waco and filmed at quite a few Texas locations, including Houston.

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"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (1982) features Melvin P. Thorpe, a television reporter who investigates the goings on at the Chicken Ranch. The character is based on real-life Houstonian Marvin Zindler, whose 1973 news report helped close down the real-life Chicken Ranch.

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There's plenty of Houston scenery in 1990's "Robocop 2." Shooting locations include the Budweiser brewery on I-10, Post Oak Blvd., Main Street, the Wortham Center, the intersections of Congress and La Branch, Prairie and Main and Rusk and Fannin, Jefferson Davis Hospital, Lyons Avenue and The Americas on Runnels Street.

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Portions of the 1998 blockbuster “Armageddon” were filmed at Ellington Airport and at Johnson Space Center. Scenes from Denton are also featured.

A portion of 2001’s “Pearl Harbor” was filmed aboard the U.S.S. Texas at the San Jacinto Battlefield.

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Part of Clint Eastwood’s “Space Cowboys” was filmed at Johnson Space Center.

“Apollo 13” – another space-centric movie that has to film at Johnson Space Center.

Several Houston-area locations are featured in “Terms of Endearment,” a 1983 film starring Shirley McLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson. Filming spots include an apartment at 1148 Heights Blvd., a home at 3060 Locke Lane in Houston, Brennan’s Restaurant and other spots in River Oaks and Texas City. Debra Winger’s character, Emma, graduates from high school in Houston.

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“Urban Cowboy” is set in Pasadena and was filmed at places in Houston and Pasadena, including the Huntsville State Penitentiary, Gilley’s nightclub in Pasadena, another spot on Red Bluff Road in Pasadena.

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Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore” was filmed at Anderson’s Houston alma mater, St. John’s School, and at Lamar High School.

The final tournament shot in Kevin Costner’s film “Tin Cup” (1996) was filmed in Kingwood.

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The 2009 film “Mao’s Last Dancer” chronicles the life of former Houston Ballet principal dancer Li Cunxin.

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A large portion of the film “Arlington Road,” released in 1999, was filmed in the Houston area, especially Pearland and the University of Houston, which was the setting for George Washington University in the film. The movie families’ “DC-area homes” were actually in Pearland, near Dixie Farm Road.

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Several Houston locations are featured in the1994 film “The Chase” – the Hardy Toll Road, Highway 290, Houston police headquarters on Reisner Street, the Sam Houston Tollway, Kemah and the Village Shopping Center.

Portions of Clint Eastwood’s 1993 film “A Perfect World,” starring Kevin Costner, were filmed in Huntsville. The first part of the film is set at the Huntsville State Penitentiary.

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The 1981 comedy “Student Bodies” was filmed at Lamar Consolidated Jr. High School in Richmond and Taylor High School in Katy. There’s also a parade scene filmed downtown.

John Wayne’s 1968 film “Hellfighters” had filming locations in Conroe and Baytown, as well as Hobby Airport.

The 1970 film “Brewster McCloud” was the first to be filmed inside the Astrodome and featured quite a few other Houston locations – Astroworld, Buffalo Bayou Park, Commerce Street, the intersections of Fannin and Greenbriar and Fannin and Old Spanish Trail, the Holly Hall overpass, Houston Zoo, Mecom Fountain, Memorial Drive, a railroad bridge over Brays Bayou and Rice University.

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A portion of the 1976 sci-fi movie “Logan’s Run” was filmed inside the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Louisiana.

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“Night Game” (1989), about a serial killer on a beach front, was filmed in Galveston and the Astrodome.

Despite having some of the largest and fastest-growing cities in the country, it seems Texans are being ignored on TV.

The website BuzzFeed compared city size to settings for TV shows and found that having a huge population who also watches tons of TV rarely means people will see their skyline on the small screen.

In its "informal" survey of 1,626 TV shows scripted since 1970, BuzzFeed found that Houston has had a tenth as many shows as San Francisco, even though Houston's population is two and half times as big.

A city with 825,000 people in 2012 has had 59 shows set there compared to just 6 shows for a city of 2.1 million.

San Antonio, the country's seventh-largest city by population has had precisely one, ABC's Killer Women, which premiered earlier this year, BuzzFeed said.

The figures reveal just how dominant the country's three largest cities are. New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have by far the most shows written about them.

Thirty-two percent of scripted shows were set in New York and L.A. Chicago came in behind them and was home to 6 percent of shows, the site said.

Despite having lower regional populations, Nielsen ratings statistics show the South spends the most time watching TV.

People in New Orleans spend the most time in front of the TV. At least that city can enjoy seeing itself on the small screen right now in HBO's True Detective, written by local boy Nic Pizzolatto.

The last time Houston could partake in any geographical narcisism was the NBC police drama Chase, which ran 18 episodes before being cut in 2011.

The five season-strong sitcom Reba, about a wise-cracking single mother, may be the most successful, averaging around 4 million viewers and making it to 30 different countries.

Between Walker and prime time soap opera Dallas, shows set in Dallas have become legendary.

Walker, Texas Ranger at least came to Houston briefly in 1995, according to the Houston Film Commission.

The Houston Film Commission does report that Houston has been very popular when it comes to reality TV, and not just for voyeuristic shows like Mother of the Bride and Wife Swap, which have both featured Houstonians.

One of Houston's big industries has repeatedly made it to the small screen with the likes of Big Medicine and Houston Medical, which followed staff at Texas Medical Center hospitals.

Animal Planet's Animal Cops: Houston premiered in 2003 and follows the city's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.